100% legal but reported for section 59

100% legal but reported for section 59

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tight fart

Original Poster:

3,083 posts

280 months

Saturday 5th October 2013
quotequote all
For those of you that don't know 'section 59' is the law the use for antisocial behavior in vehicles, such as meets in car parks to do burnouts etc.
We were out on some byways near Stevenage when a couple of Land rovers were stopped by a copper on a quad bike for causing distress to a farmer.
The farmer wants the byway closed and by saying it causes him distress, the law can issue a section 59, get stopped again for anything and I'm told they can confiscate your motor.

s_zigmond

1,165 posts

193 months

Monday 7th October 2013
quotequote all
tight fart said:
For those of you that don't know 'section 59' is the law the use for antisocial behavior in vehicles, such as meets in car parks to do burnouts etc.
We were out on some byways near Stevenage when a couple of Land rovers were stopped by a copper on a quad bike for causing distress to a farmer.
The farmer wants the byway closed and by saying it causes him distress, the law can issue a section 59, get stopped again for anything and I'm told they can confiscate your motor.
In what way were they apparently "causing stress"

f1rob

317 posts

183 months

Thursday 17th October 2013
quotequote all
No the law cant just issue a section 59 (well not if they act correctly but that dosent stop the odd rouge copper !!!
To get a section 59 you have to fill 2 criteria
Firstly section 3 of the RTA (careless driving) or section 34 (driving other than a road)
only if you break one off the above can it be added to the "cause alarm and distress" to issue a 59
If they were driving in a normal manner on a byway then it wasn't correctly issued
There is no right of appeal once its correctly issued but if there have been mistakes down to police station and point the fault out to the desk sargent and work from there-don't let it drop and the paperwork will be thrown in the bin before its gone through the system
Best one was a friend who was given a 59 while sitting on a bank eating a sandwich while having a break on a motorbike trip

Martin4x4

6,506 posts

139 months

Thursday 31st October 2013
quotequote all
f1rob is spot on.

A section 59 can only be used for aggravating behaviour after one of those endorsable offences.

You also must be issued with the paper work for it to hold. In my experience the Police use them to 'scare off' people from using legal byways. In my case I received a section 34 (driving other than on a road) for taking an abatement around illegal obstuction(locked gate) and threatened with a section 59. I challenged the S.34 fixed penalty and had that ticket throw out by the magistrate. The important thing to understand is legally the section 59 is a warning, and must be issued and filed correctly twice to have any risk of confiscation. The best (only) way to over turn a section 59 file is to be cleared of the underlying offence.

You should complain to the professional standards department of your local police force on the grounds of abuse of process.

Edited by Martin4x4 on Thursday 31st October 21:12

jith

2,752 posts

222 months

Friday 1st November 2013
quotequote all
tight fart said:
For those of you that don't know 'section 59' is the law the use for antisocial behavior in vehicles, such as meets in car parks to do burnouts etc.
We were out on some byways near Stevenage when a couple of Land rovers were stopped by a copper on a quad bike for causing distress to a farmer.
The farmer wants the byway closed and by saying it causes him distress, the law can issue a section 59, get stopped again for anything and I'm told they can confiscate your motor.
Y'know, there's a hellish irony to a farmer complaining about Land Rovers driving across a field. silly

J

DaveL485

2,758 posts

204 months

Friday 1st November 2013
quotequote all
Section 59's are very good for power-trip coppers who can't catch you out for anything else.

The principal of them may be OK, but when misused, extremely unfair.

anonymous-user

61 months

Friday 1st November 2013
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I don't use them for anything other than off-road vehicles which people report as flying around estates / fields at the back of their houses, like the legislation was designed for.